


Train For Ill and not for Good

by Livefox



Category: Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, creature!Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 19:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13887249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livefox/pseuds/Livefox
Summary: Harry Potter has always had a rough time of it, especially the summer before his fourth year of schooling. What happens when he comes into a very unexpected heritage catalyzed by the rampant emotions during the Quidditch World Cup?





	1. Dark and Cloudy Day

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where the idea for this originated, especially since I'm an incredibly slow writer. I started posting this on FF, however I decided to move the story here and use this as an opportunity to do a surface level revision and fix a number of problems with the story.

Chapter 1: Fall From Grace

Tina awoke to the sensation of falling. It was distinctly falling, flying felt different from this uncontrolled tumble; Grace as opposed to sprawl. What was worse than the falling was the fact that her wings appeared to be useless in halting the rapid descent through the blackness. Glancing over her shoulders there was the familiar sight of her two dark purple wings against her crimson fur and beyond them nothing but the omnipresent darkness. As always for bed Tina wore a long night-shirt that fluttered gently in opposition to the rapid fall. Only her presence of mind allowed her to attempt to banish the apparent void; the light that flared up around her wings revealing hundreds of winged figures hurtling through the void around and askew from her; the clan mark of Shevan stood out on a few of the nearest Cubi but most were too far away to see much detail.

Her mind instinctively brought up lists of possibilities, discarding mountains and other fabricated locations as the source of the fall; even with the tallest mountains she would have hit the ground by now, same with all other works of architecture. The darkness without stars further serving to dissuade her of that. That left portal loops and powerful creatures; most likely in conjunction. Frowning in annoyance she anchored a light spell in place and waited patiently as she fell past it, seeing how long the falling loop was. Ten, then twenty seconds passed with just the whistling and there was no indication that the loop was about to begin anew. So loops were out then, that meant only one force could possibly be responsible; the Fey. Looking around Tina could see that the rest of the Cubi were starting to come out of their sleep, most quickly coming to the same conclusion. All the ones Tina could see tried their wings, only to continue on the exact same downwards path. Sighing Tina set herself in a meditative position and waited; pressing down the rising anxiety and panic while ignoring the cries of startelement and panic from the others . Reassurances would be hollow at this point and Tina wanted to remain unbiased.

It was only a half-hour or so, falling at terminal velocity through the unending darkness before the sound of wings cut through the artificial silence like a knife. Strictly speaking the sound of wings was not entirely necessary, but then again the Fey were much like Cubi in that regards; enjoying drama and often engaging in unneeded theatrics. A being of winged darkness settled in beside Tina from nowhere, unconcerned by the downwards motion. Certainly one could see the general outline, especially in the ever growing light, but the features and patterns of the body and face remained a mask of shadows; hidden from sight behind a mask of magic that made Tina's eyes water.

"Greetings to you; Tina Shevan of clan Shevan." The figure spoke in a musical midrange; unidentifiable as male or female.

“You know that shadow effect is quite annoying” Tina responded to the shadowed figure before adding "Hello to you too" as an afterthought.

“So I have been told” The figure replied “Most find it highly disconcerting to speak to a being of shadows, this is why I find it useful. Please do not let my form influence your judgement, that would be rather unfortunate.”

“Well it isn’t as if I was planning on attacking you, that would be counterproductive; as far as I see it there are a limited number of scenarios. One, I’m the only one here and the rest of these individuals are all illusions. Two, you’ve somehow managed to transport what looks like the entire Clan Shevan here as well as a number of others. In either case I’d be interested in your motivations and unlikely to attack without provocation. Not to mention that attacking one of the Fair Folk is foolish in the extreme. I have nothing to bargain, nothing to promise. I must wait and listen.”

“That is well reasoned; as to our motivation, because it is reasonable that you know our motivations, we have acted to both save your clan and affect the future towards a course that you would see as beneficial.” The figure responded before shifting position in the downwards spiral, floating so that it was directly above Tina.

“That does not reassure me in the slightest”

“Rest assured that we are not saving you from ourselves, but that is the truth; had we not intervened everyone you see here would be dead.” After a short pause the figure added “...Well, except for us.”

“Please, do continue. Tell me exactly what you know. How would we have died? Why have you brought us to wherever this is; a side universe by the looks of it.”

“Excellent questions, to answer both of those let me remind you that there is a war on; Dragons would have slaughtered not only your supposedly hidden village but those of clan Abrin and Tarman as well. If it helps you may think of it as our good deed for the century."

Tina paused and then asked "So why are we still here? return us to our homes and be done with it. Or is there something else you would have us do?"

“Your fate has already been decided. To leave you on Furrae would be disastrous, all of your kind present here would be dead within the decade; that result is distasteful. As to keeping you in a constructed universe, the sanity of all present would suffer. There is only one viable alternative." 

"You would leave us in a separate dimension, one unconnected with our own." Tina replied, suddenly nervous. "Do I have the right of it?"

"You do." The shadow responded, voice becoming colder "To actively transport such a large group between prime branches is unpleasant, as such the universe you will find yourself in is merely the shadow of a reflection of the original. The Cubi there will not age beyond their majority, nor will any offspring, however the Cubi magic will be partially bound in recompense."

"Why that particular arrangement?" 

"It is the bargain between your leaders and the Fey, you will remain in the dimension we provide for you until such a time that the specified conditions are fulfilled and we save the Cubi present from their predicted demise during the Dragon-Cubi war.”

"Specified conditions" Tina said "please tell me that it isn't a prophecy? I hate prophecy."

"It is indeed" The shadow replied "we thought it for the best"

“I suppose that you won’t tell me what you’re actually getting out of this? I mean, it’s not impossible that you are doing this for completely altruistic reasons; but altruism would save us once, not set us aside for some purpose. There’s some other motivation to this, but then again when you Fey let loose with your powers you typically play for the endgame; which in this case might stretch anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years off. Utilitarian reasoning at its finest if I might say so.”

"Thank you" The shadowy creature chimed, sounding pleased before continuing on “You act most unusual for a Cubi, with what I am allowed to remember in the here and now I recall your kind falling towards emotional extremes. Is this a quirk of the individuals I have met or is it a general trait?”

“It is a feature of the entire Cubi race; the emotions upon which we feed making us more vulnerable to rapid changes of mood. In essence we feel too deeply, what would make a normal being angry has the potential to drive a Cubi to an almost unstoppable fury and things of that nature. I and a small few others of my clan recognized this as a problem and worked on emotion suppression techniques. Originally we were going to use runic stones triggered by bursts of emotion but we settled on combining a more stable version of that with meditation.”

“Very clever, I’ll try to remember that for future encounters with your kind.”

"You must realize that it takes years of practice, the shortest amount of time it took was two years and a week. You use the emotion suppressor to alert you when you're getting too emotional and slowly reduce the power until the mind is able to stabilize the emotions on its own. It personally took me a decade to learn, although that was mostly due to unexpected circumstances.” 

“Might I ask what those circumstances happened to be?”

“They involved a plot to murder our clan leader. More I will not tell you without her permission.” 

“I will not ask for more, sometimes secrets are not meant to become known.”

“The reports of Fey that I have heard mentioned that you have true omniscience” Tina said as she realizes that this piece of knowledge is what has been bugging her throughout the conversation “You must know what I am about to say; you already know all of my secrets. Or are you impotent?”

“While it is true that our omniscience is real you have not heard the entire truth. It is part and parcel of our powers that our interactions with other planes of existence take place as if we knew only what we found out there. By interacting with Furrae we lose our omniscience; and even then it is not true omniscience for we cannot see the results of our own actions. To change things we must fling ourselves into the world, trusting to our own diminished abilities to intersect with the events we wish to be changed. This is the tenth time in the entirety of Furrae history that we have actually had the opportunity to interfere. Our last attempt was to warn Cyra of her disastrous plan to take over Hishaan, we failed and some part of the war became our doing because of that failure. Beyond that we have made attempts to prevent the slow decline of the Angels; there has been some small success with that project. Even with this there is an ulterior motive, one that will only make sense a very long time from now.” 

“So we become your arrows, launched into the far future. You have chosen us because we will not be missed from history, our disappearance blamed on the Dragons as our deaths would have been.”

“Exactly; you will have millenia to gain knowledge and experience, time to prepare for the challenges facing you. But now it is time, the conflux approaches” The figure started drifting downwards into the blackness “Prepare yourself, I am sorry that this will hurt.”

From all over the falling Cubi the Fey that had been conversing with them drifted downwards so that they rested below the mass. Forming a circle they began weaving their magic together in preparation for sending the Cubi across dimensions. Slowly a sphere of glowing magic formed around the falling Incubi and Succubi and a wave of pain passed across them. It hit Tina like a brick, pain wrapping around her like a cloak before abruptly ceasing as Tina slammed into the suddenly present ground. All around her Cubi hit the stone with a crunch, and then there was darkness.

She was pressed further into the dark stone by a couple of Cubi landing directly on top of her. Tina was amongst the first to get over the shock of landing; pushing herself to her feet with graceless efficiency and managing to get out from beneath the pile. As Tina reached her feet a stack of books appeared in front of her; the contents of her bookshelves at home plus a number of large leather bound books with unfamiliar titles. Amongst the ones she did not recognise two stood out as being the most useful; one book on basic tool making while the other was a book of maps, presumably of this unfamiliar world. 

Tina took a moment to examine the cave that the gateway had connected to, solid walls of stone circled the cavern but what really caught her attention was the physical manifestation of the path between worlds. Set against one wall of the smooth cavern stood a gigantic stone archway; obviously designed to serve as a conduit between dimensions. Beneath Tina's inexperienced eyes—until now she had had no interest in runes—the doorway was aesthetically pleasing; each rune positioned so that functionality was equally balanced by form. It was obvious that the gateway was once filled with energy, however that fact was contrasted against the reality of the current situation, the crackling energy that still filled the gateway slowly dying away until it was inert rock. Standing next to the gateway Tina felt rather than saw Shevan herself; actual body present instead of it being an avatar. 

Gasping in surprise Tina gathered up her books in her otherspace pocket and hurried over to where Shevan was standing in a triangle with two other Cubi. Her suspicions that they were the leaders of the other two clans were confirmed when she saw their third set of wings. Unsure of how the three would react to her approach Tina stepped forwards so that she was clearly visible from the plateau the gateway was stationed on. Shevan herself was much like Tina in appearance; red fur clashing against purple wings in a manner that almost made the interface appear blue. Catlike face with eyes of a dark slate that looked out upon the world in a cool and calculating fashion. Next to Shevan stood a tall reptilian male with a strange pattern stretching across his scales; odd symmetrical patches of green and black that gleamed in the reflected magelight that almost every assembled Cubi had flaring around them. His left eye blinded by a long slash across his face. Hanging behind the group was a short grey female wolf with silver wings that seemed incongruous amongst the group of tri-wings but was probably the most powerful individual there.

Seeing Tina's reluctance Shevan beckoned her forwards to join the trio. “Glad to see you here, it has been a long time since we last talked Granddaughter; five-hundred years ago if I remember correctly.” 

“Ah, yes. It was for your first millennial birthday, quite nice party as well.” Tina said, sensing how the conversation will go.  
Grandmother had always done this sort of thing, acting completely stupid in public and dropping the mask in private. Everyone knew that she was doing it too, and Tina had a suspicion that Shevan knew that everyone knew it was an act. What her possible motives for it were Tina had been left in the dark and so had two options--one; play along--two; try to get Shevan to see sense. Tina thought that under these circumstances the second would be expedient.  
“Grandmother, while this facade might have been of some use to you back on Furrae we are not there anymore. I need to know more information and you three are the only ones that might know it”

Shevan let out a long sigh before replying “Force of habit I suppose.”

The other clan leaders shared a covert glance of relief.

“Thank you for that” the snake said in a pleasant bass “I am Abrin, of the clan Abrin. Normally I would add on a whole laundry list of titles and accolades onto that fact, but this is not such a time that we should stand on ceremony” he added, slithering forwards towards Tina. "My compatriot is Tarman, again of Clan Tarman. Speak your questions unto us and we might see them answered."

"What is the prophecy the Fey spoke of?"

"The lost Prince will come into his heritage as one of the people and regain his throne of books. That which is thought to be three, is four, will become five. He who flees will be faced with new knowledge. That which was once sacrificed will be regained and the death without dying reversed." the three chorused in time.

“Sounds like nonsense to me, but as with all prophecy I’m sure we’ll look back on it and find it blindingly obvious.” Tina sighed “Some things are obvious. The ancient door is that gateway over there, the death without dying is just mundane death as opposed to soul-death. Aside from that I have no idea what any of it means.”

As the last Cubi got to their feet a desk appeared in a clear space. “RIght” Shevan said in response “We need to start getting everyone organized, what do you prefer; Clans separate or mixed?” 

“As much as we once squabbled I think that we will need to start working together” Abrin replied “I think that we should each handle a separate branch of talents. Shevan, you take the thinkers, I’ll take the craftsman, and Tarman can take the mages. Anyone belonging to more than one of those groups will be chosen by their strength in each area.”

“Sounds good to me” Tarman replied as Shevan gave her assent.

Tina walked away as the three began negotiations over the best candidates from each Clan, already knowing that Shevan would get her.

Unnoticed in the midst of the confusion a pair of Cubi slipped away from the rest and vanished.


	2. Luck’s a Chance, but Trouble’s Sure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the start of GoF. A long long time after it should have been out. Fortunately this means I can push two chapters at once

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Now we get back to the start of book 4. Only about 4000 years in the future from what we just saw. Depending on how I feel we might be seeing more of the three Clans plotline. This chapter will mainly be recap of the events of the first few chapters of GoF with the small changes that are needed to make the story work; I’m fairly certain that this is the shakiest literary voice that I’ve yet written. Hopefully with more of the future work now completed this review and re-release can fix some of the original issues. I think that this story starts better after the dream at the beginning of GoF, so that by the time my story picks up Harry has already had the dream of the Riddle House, and the invitation to the Quidditch World Cup has arrived. This allows me a little bit of freedom in playing with the timeline without having to retread literally every event at the start of GoF. Even so I feel that this chapter reads more as filler than as a chapter proper and as such I will do a double update with this and the next chapter.

Harry Potter awoke with a headache, not unusual in itself outside the severity; his scar often hurt when Voldemort was around and more recently in his dreams--dark things full of hatred that was not his. This headache was different, distinct from the pain that centred itself on his scar; an intense but diffuse pressure that had been slowly building for a week. The Dursley’s had been their usual less than helpful selves in this regards, between the sparse diet that the family had decided to follow and their complete lack of care about his headache Harry was in a miserable mood; even if he did have the upcoming escape to the Quidditch World Cup to look forward to. Even if he did seem to be surviving better than the rest of the Dursley family it would still be good to get away from the house and the diet. The Weasleys were set to arrive in the afternoon so Harry felt that he’d better face breakfast, even if it was likely going to be sparse. The Dursleys would have the usual list of chores to complete for the day; though this had gotten easier and more reasonable with the threat or Sirius Black to temper their behaviour with. 

Breakfast was as predicted, comprised primarily of fresh fruit with a single rasher of bacon serving as protein. Dudley ended up gobbling his breakfast down, somehow stealing another apple in the process, Petunia obviously not caring all that much about a single piece of fruit. Harry privately suspected that she’d been so strict the first day so as to make them feel that they were getting away with something when they were consuming a healthy amount of food. The chores were easily completed, just the breakfast dishes and a few rooms that needed a light vacuum before the rest of the day belonged to Harry who used the time to pack up his belongings and hide the evidence that the Weasleys had been sending him care packages. 

A few hours passed and Harry sat waiting in the kitchen, The Weasleys weren’t late yet, but they were getting close. Harry had just gotten up and started pacing the room when the fake fireplace in the sitting room burst outward in a tangled mess of splintered wood, red hair, and swearing. Of course they’d decided upon the one method of magical transportation that would result in injury, brooms would have been inconvenient. Harry barely had time to contemplate that before he was quickly herded into the Floo alongside his trunk and sent to the Burrow, eager to get away and trusting Arthur to sort things out. What followed was a few moments violent spinning before he was violently ejected from the floo inside the burrow. It seemed a far more violent reaction than the only other time he’d traveled by floo, but then aside from brooms all means of magical transportation seemed to get the better of him. The Burrow was still as tall and crooked and patched together as always, each room stuck together literally by magic. Waiting in the kitchen were the eldest siblings Bill and Charlie Weasley, both working in rather dangerous positions; Bill having gone into curse-breaking for Gringotts; a subject that alternatively threatened to be boring and horribly horribly exciting as the curses employed in the Egyptian tombs that Bill worked on were both quite dark and very nasty. Charlie on the other hand worked as a Dragon handler in Romania; a position which was possibly even more deadly than it sounded. 

The rest of the group arrived in short order, with Mr Weasley berating the twins for a prank that they’d apparently pulled on Dudley, with a prank company that Fred and George founded being mentioned, with Mrs Weasley putting her foot down. Somehow Harry suspected that Fred and George would continue despite their mother’s consternation. 

Dinner still managed to be a lighthearted occasion, reuniting with Ron and Hermione after a summer stuck at the Dursleys, and the slight mystery of what was going on at Hogwarts after the World Cup. 

Trying to sleep was difficult, between the headache and the excitement for seeing the level that professional Quidditch players could achieve. When sleep did come it was dark and dreamless, black velvet cloth that should have contained something. 

Waking to the same sharp headache and a new sensation of emptiness that lingered throughout the rushed breakfast and the journey towards what would apparently get them to the Quidditch World Cup. Which turned out to be a boot on a random hilltop overlooking a muggle village, something called a portkey that Harry took to with a dislike as it spat him out in a faceplant on the grassy field outside the forest where the World Cup was to be held. 

The pitching of the tents went off without a hitch and the group made its way towards the massively large stadium that held the Quidditch World Cup, joining the throng that wound their way towards the towering structure. The closer that the group got towards the stadium the larger the headache Harry dealt with until in the top box it felt like his head was overstuffed, yet at the same time Harry felt a rising surge of energy as if his position in the top box was indicative of his mental state. The entire match went by in a blur, not even the Veela causing much of a reaction. Only after Viktor Krum caught the snitch that the high started to die down, even though the headache remained at its peak. After the match Harry went to sleep, ignoring the revelry in favour of a relaxing sleep. 

He awoke a few hours later to the sound of panicked screams. The celebrations turned to terror, followed by a mad dash into the woods away from the Death Eaters. It wasn’t until the group reached the safety of the deep woods that Harry noticed that his headache had vanished entirely and had been replaced by a strange awareness of the world. Reaching up to his head it was immediately obvious that something was wrong, for atop his head were, by the feel of it, two feathered wings had sprouted and were flapping about merrily. A startled “Eep” came out of his mouth moments before Hermione pulled her wand on him, slamming him into a tree and whispering “Revelio Specialis, Revelio Nomine, Verbum Revelans, Finite Incantatem” in quick succession, getting more and more perplexed at each result before finally unpinning Harry from the tree. 

“So” Hermione said with a small twist to her mouth “Wings, on your head. New development or have you been hiding them from us all this time?” it was obvious that she was trying to sound casual but a tinge of… panic, fear... tinged her voice.  
“I… just noticed them now” Harry responded shakily, trying to get over the fact that one of his best friends had just slammed him quite hard at that into a tree. “Did I get hit by a stray jinx or something?”  
“No, I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Not anywhere near that simple. Have you ever heard of the creatures called Cubi?”  
“Can’t say I’ve heard of them” 

“Well I can’t say that I’m in the least surprised. I found them mentioned in a book titled “Secrets of the Creature races. Speculation versus Fact” by Osmend Prufrock. Terribly enigmatic race, not much known about them except for their physical appearance and their ability to shapeshift. The peculiarity that is noted by Prufrock is their apparent ability to crossbreed with just about everything, humans, centaurs, the rumored case of dragons, you name it. This led him to speculate that Cubi aren’t a race per say, but rather a collection of species bound together by some sort of magic that confers unto them their abilities.”

A few moments later there was a cry of “Morsmordre” before a giant glowing green skull lit up the night sky, a serpent slithering out of it. Lighting up the sky like a dark constellation highlighted against the dark clouds. The whole thing originating just a few feet away through the woods. A barrage of stunning spells almost immediately coming through those woods and almost striking Harry, Ron, and Hermione. A figure that Harry vaguely recognized as Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE, seeing the headwings on Harry’s head and firing off a peremptory stunner that was fired with precision and hit centre mass. 

A long moment of darkness later and Harry returned to wakefulness on the grass carpeted floor of the forest, Amelia Bones and a dozen ministry officials standing over him, Amelia shakily offering him his wand back, everything happening far too fast until Amelia grabbed a hold of him and with the fresh feeling of being squeezed through a tight tube they vanished from the darkened scene.


	3. Your Soul is in my Soul’s Stead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Into the belly of the department of Mysteries, Harry Potter will discover the secrets of his race.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I actually worked on this chapter and the previous and next chapter simultaneously. Sorry for taking so long to complete these, my muse went up and left for a while but now I’ve hit second... I mean third...I mean fourth year I need something to do in my spare time that improves my writing skills. It’s certainly better than trying to move Nematodes around from one agar plate to another. And now I’m a Computer Science major, look at how much changes between when I start a project like this and when I post a chapter

Amelia Bones’s apparition landed the two of them in the middle of a heavily guarded stone room. As the crack of landing sounded the four figures in red robes moved as one to pull their wands on the pair. Amelia Bones gave them an approving glance before simply saying “Peculiarities Parabolous”.

“Amelia Bones, I hope you have some good news.” The watcher behind the pair said “The whole Ministry was locked down the moment the Dark Mark appeared.” 

“Send a runner” Amelia shot back “The culprit got away. I want the entire wizarding world on alert. If...if he is back then this is the first engagement, if not I want whoever dares to use that foul mark brought to justice. Too many good lives were lost because of it for this to herald anything good.”

The watchers in the room finally noticed Harry, standing huddled next to Amelia; his head-wings quite clearly visible. 

The wand of the oldest Auror present rose and pointed straight at Harry as he asked “Do you know who, or rather what your companion is?” 

“The who is private” Bones replied “And I am well aware that the individual following me has wings on his head. He is the reason I Apparated directly back here; I came to speak to the Department of Mysteries, although I will stop by to organize the DMLE afterwards. Grab another senior Auror and escort me down; I don’t want any trouble in case we’re intercepted.” When it appeared that the senior Auror looked like he was about to protest Amelia added. “I’m sure they can handle the department for the fifteen or so minutes we’ll be gone.”

“You remember the last time you said that” The lead Auror grumbled “They still haven’t got all the paperwork sorted out.”

“Yes but that’s just waiting on other departments to submit their reports and I don’t think the Department of Mysteries will ever actually get around to writing up their stock of paperwork. They either seem to submit it before you request it or never submit it at all.” And walked out of the room, beckoning Harry to follow.

It was evident from the Aurors bustling about that the room they had apperated to was deep in the heart of the DMLE and as such the protections it had were warranted. The fact that the junior most Auror on guard was in her mid thirties was a good indication of the seniority of the guard position. As a position of departmental pride the room did not, in point of fact exist on any of the blueprints and schematics of the building and was placed on a section of blank wall occupied by departmental notices. 

The presence of Amelia and of the two aurors flanking them deterred everyone who glanced in their direction but wasn’t quite enough to ward off the whispers and pointing from the senior aurors. The ones who started in her direction were quickly waved off 

They reached the elevator and squeezed in with a man clutching several carved stone cubes in his outstretched hands and muttering under his breath. He started a bit when the elevator jerked downward and Amelia almost bumped into him. Harry moved to speak but Amelia shushed him and shook her head “Wait until we’re in the Department of Mysteries, of course we’ll probably set off half of the alarms trying to get in but they’re the only ones who’ll have the needed connections to figure out what happened. All the signs are pointing at Incubus but that’s not possible given who your parents were. James did fool around a little in his youth but he settled down quite nicely when he met Lilly, and Lilly herself was besotted with James once she finally got past his rather abrupt manners.” 

The lift rattled to a stop on the lowest floor and the two aurors took up point positions, ready to herd anyone away who dared approach the group. However the lowest floor of the Ministry was devoid of life, the rough walls hewn out of the ancient rock of England pale and flickering as illuminated by the torches. At the very end of the hallway sat a door that dared anyone to even knock. As Amelia approached the door a silver plaque was visible on the door that read “Department of Mysteries”. 

Amelia bones leaned in close to the door and spoke firmly “Amelia Bones, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, accompanied by an apparent Incubus identified as Harry James Potter” 

The door swung open without a sound to reveal a circular room with doors set against each other so that only a thin strip of stone between each door was visible. Amelia and Harry stepped through into the room, the two Aurors waiting outside as the door slowly swung closed. The instant that the door locked with an audible click the room seemed to expand as the doors and walls surged backwards, the thin strips of stone becoming long stretches of smooth rock, interspersed with archways that led off into the distance. The ceiling sprung up and away, revealing a star-studded night sky far far above the octagonal space. 

While Amelia had put one hand on her wand holster she refrained from drawing her wand and instead was glancing around, looking for some reason for the sudden change in the unnerving but solid architecture. 

From behind them came a rustling of cloth against cloth, sounding from a distance behind them, obviously intended to announce the approach of the figure. 

“Be at ease Amelia Bones and Harry Potter, for no harm will come to you in this domain. Welcome to the true Department of Mysteries, and what used to be the Wizards’ Council before it was moved to London and renamed. I am Tina of Shevan, clan of the three moons and the current steward for the Cubi of Europe.”

As Tina spoke both Harry and Amelia were stupefied, having never even heard of the clan or the position she claimed to represent. Amelia was especially quizzical of the proclamation, being passably familiar with the European power structure she should have heard of the clan. Then again as far as the official documents were concerned the Cubi were to be left to their own devices, neither aided or hindered in their schemes. The few times that Cubi were brought in for questioning it was always handled by the department of Mysteries and an official report submitted, although it was often a few months before the heavily censored report cleared the department of Mysteries. 

Amelia ended up using the formal greeting that was contained somewhere within the massive pile of briefings that the head of any department was subject to. “Ancient watcher, I in return grant the considerations that you have set forth, neither myself or anyone acting in my name will bring harm to yourself or those you are responsible for.”

“That is acceptable” Tina responded in a slightly formal tone of voice before beckoning the pair to follow her. “We should probably discuss this over a nice cup of tea now that we’ve gotten all the formalities over with. No sense to stand on ceremony any more than needed.”

At that Amelia stood slightly gawping “But all the stories, all the documents. They all pointed to the Cubi as a race bound by formality.”

“Well yes, we find that people tend to relax around us quite a bit more if they think all the ceremonies and the rituals for dealing with our kind actually help, some of our thinkers had quite a bit of fun designing them.” Tina cooly replied “We have to find something to keep ourselves entertained, the last time one of us decided to throw a party I believe your people called it the Roaring Twenties.” Tina sighed and looked a little wistful “And then things went dark, World War Two was the worst fighting I’ve seen since the Cubi race got dumped on this planet. Still better than the alternative though.”

“Yes, well, while this history lesson might turn out to be fascinating some other time” Amelia started, trying to come to grips with the depth of history that the Cubi race casually displayed “Right now we need to focus on the…” Amelia trailed off as they passed one of the rooms, which appeared to look into a giant library from a point high in one of the walls, the bookshelves stacking at least four stories high and stretching off into the far distance. “...No, I refuse to be sidetracked by anything, we are here to discuss the matter of Harry Potter as a member of the Cubi race. Tina, he has the signature of a clan-mark, the spells all confirmed it; the head-wings could have been a clever prank or a bit of magic gone wrong. That at least was clear in the archives. I received a message via time-turner on the way here with the information sent back five hours from now that confirms it.”

Tina whistled “Damn, that’s serious magic to involve in something like this. Also ensures that we’re not just going to disappear with him. We are still going to do those tests to ensure the closed-time loop is valid, but now we’re going to run through those quickly and skip right over to tearing down the glamour covering his true form.”

Harry just stood there and looked puzzled. “I do hope that you’re going to explain everything to me at some point.”

“We’ll explain things on the way to the ritual room, I think it should still be set up to remove all outside magical influences, we haven’t used it in a few decades but the few reagents required should still be good” Tina explained before walking over to the library and yelling “Fyodor, meet us in the old ritual room, bring the literature on null-magic spaces just in case this is one of the tricky ones.”

A distant shout came back, a deep baritone that carried easily across the library “Give me a few minutes, I need to grab them from the stacks” 

“Now then, unless you want to go through the ritual naked we should swing by the supply closet and pick up some robes, the ones you have on contain way too much magic to survive the rituals but we keep a supply of clothing made with entirely mundane materials just in case”

“You said you were going to explain, but all that does is raise more questions.” Harry stated sarcastically. “I’ve had a rather eventful night, what with the Death Eaters and the hiding, and then finding out that apparently my parents weren’t who I thought they were. Hell my parents weren’t even human if this is the truth.”

Tina sighed and reached over, putting one hand down comfortingly on Harry’s shoulder “I’m sorry you had to learn about it this way, these revelations are never easy. I dread to think how much of a shock the Cubi culture will be when you decide to learn more about it. Right now stripping away the glamour hiding your true form is going to be the most helpful thing we can do to try and determine who your parents are. Although it might be quicker to ask you if there happens to be a mysterious glowy mark somewhere on your body.”

That one threw Harry completely for a loop “Glowy mark?”

“Do they teach you nothing at that school of yours? Last time I bothered to check Cubi were rather firmly on the syllabus for second year.”

Harry grimaced “Don’t remind me, second year we had Gilderoy Lockhart, man was a literal fraud. Professor Lupin tried to play catch-up in the third year but by that point it was already too late.”

“Perhaps it is time to send a teacher to Hogwarts” Tina mused “I mean, if you’re going to continue attending then that’s a given. Someone is going to need to guide you through the sudden growth of your powers, not to mention the inherent emotional instability of the Cubi race.”

“Let’s just get this over with, and then you can send your message back in time, and we can sit down and discuss this at length, preferably over a nice meal.” Harry sighed “I’m tired and emotional and I want never to have heard of the Cubi race, but that’s not going to change the fact that this happened. Take me to the ritual circle before I change my mind. Amelia, I’m counting on you to make sure that this is a good idea.”

“Oh relax, the worst that could happen is that the ritual fails to pull all of the magic out of the area and we need to unravel the glamour by hand.” Tina replied “Most people come out of the experience feeling more in control of their magic. You start hanging around for a few hundred years and you end up with all sorts of random enchantments and permanent transfigurations that could rely perfectly well on the ambient magic but insist on using your magical core as a power source. Snap up a dress one decade and before you know it you’ve lost track of it and the darn thing is still going somewhere in Aruba years later. It’s a kind of house-cleaning for your magic.”

“Yes, well, getting past that oddly specific example… We do find ourselves working under a rather strict time limit, perhaps it would be best to stick to business until we get this sorted out.” Amelia Bones blinked a few times before adding under her breath “And now I know why we don’t deal with Cubi on a daily basis.”

“We can be serious when we want to be, in fact I think that us Cubi can be scarily serious when we want to be. You’re far too young to remember our involvement in the war against Grindelwald. I remember when we stormed the gates of Nurmengard after his defeat; his followers retreating to the prison that their leader built. These Dark Lords of yours make for exceptional practice. Enough talk, we’re finally here.” 

Sure enough the final doorway in the corridor opened up into a space far larger than the Hogwarts great hall. Perfectly circular and carved so that the floor sloped gently down into the center of the the room where a smaller circle was inlaid into the floor and surrounded by columns that formed various geometric figures with more sides the closer out the columns spread to the entryway. Perhaps the most striking part of the whole design was the fact that every square centimeter was filled with runes and inlaid in various metals, far above the ceiling formed a parabola. The whole scene was illuminated by great glowing crystals set at regular intervals along the outside of the walls causing the shadows of the columns to all point towards the center of the room. Within the room a serpentine figure slithered around from place to place, poking and prodding at some of the columns and occasionally consulting a large tome. As the three entered he looked up allowing for a better view of his form. While the figure had at first looked serpentine a second glance was enough to show that he was literally a snake colored a pale yellow and slithering along the floor with his body upright and supported by his tail. Two sets of purple wings sprouted from his back and head however his back wings were currently tucked away. Covering his body was a long thick robe of a jet black material with slits sliced into it to allow his wings to poke out. Carried beneath the tome was another bundle of roughly the same material except it was pure white. 

Slithering over the new Incubus waved friendly to Tina, almost dropping the book and garment in his clumsiness. Speaking with a slight Russian accent as well as a slight lisp he tried to enunciate “Tina, this is the potential Cubi?” After a nod from her he handed Harry the robe and introduced himself as Fyodor, the head librarian and rune master of New SAIA, the academy for Cubi. 

“Go, put that on, leave all your belongings and your wand in that chamber over there, if you are especially worried there are lockers where you can set the combination. Come back wearing that robe unless you’d like to do this in the nude. Some do so for other rituals, is powerful magic, some like to feel it fully.”

“Err, no, I’ll wear the robe” Harry managed before heading off to the locker room to get changed, closely followed by Amelia who waited at the entrance for his return. After a very short period he returned clad in the thick white robe, as he returned Amelia flicked her wand at him and was satisfied at the light green glow from the tip of it. 

“Standard identity charm, make sure that you haven’t been replaced. Standard procedure when dealing with shapeshifters.”

Tina just nodded at that “Come on then, into the center of the circle with you, we need to personalize the ritual to you and we can’t do that without an imprint of your magic.” 

With each circle of columns Harry crossed the air got dryer and the voices of the trio looking over the array got quieter. With the last three circles there was a physical barrier of sorts that yielded slowly to the touch before melding to his skin, allowing him and only him passage. The air at the very center smelled of ozone and citrus, although a quick glance around showed this latter to be coming from a selection of fruit on one of the small podiums that had been fresh cut with a small sign indicating that it was safe to eat without disrupting the ritual. A fairly comfortable chair and lectern with a small selection of reading material as well as a pamphlet detailing the musical choices available during the ritual. This got tossed aside after a quick glance and Harry sighed before flopping down into the chair (Helpfully designed by members of clan Abrin as the plaque read).

Harry only had enough time to vaguely wonder why everything happened to him before the first pulse of magic hit. Raw primal energy passing over and around and through him, and it met with his own magic and was changed by it. As soon as the pulse had hit it suddenly vanished, sucked away into the ground and dispersed among all the pylons. Another surge of magic came and then another, filling him to the brink with power and then draining back out until all the pylons were glowing a bright brilliant emerald green. Then the inbound connection was sealed off, all the power directed outwards, drawing every scrap of magic from within the circle, tugging on his reserves but never managing to leech a scrap from them. One by one all the invisible strings of power connecting him to the outside world were snipped. Each marked by a tingle of power turning inwards and coiling around his core. One particularly stubborn string of magic digging into his forehead was ejected violently from the inner circles where it was caught by a waiting crystalline sphere. Other pieces of internal enchantments flew off, mainly from places where pranks had taken place, each caught by a separate crystal sphere. Finally when the last prank was finished there was a tugging at the very fabric of his being, bits and pieces of skin flying apart, replaced by a fine black fur until the world just went away for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the story comes from the A.E. Housman poem Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff
> 
> With the relevant lines being:
> 
> Therefore, since the world has still  
> Much good, but much less good than ill,  
> And while the sun and moon endure  
> Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,  
> I'd face it as a wise man would,  
> And train for ill and not for good.


End file.
